by Jennifer Kowalewski
In five years,
the Appalachian Rural Health Institute’s (AHRI)
Diabetes/Endocrine Diseases Biorepository could have blood
samples from more than 5,000 persons — samples that will be used
to further endocrine disease research in Southeastern Ohio and
nationwide.
“The
Diseases Biorepository will be one of the first biorepositories
for diabetes and other endocrine diseases that has specific
clinical information associated with it,” says Frank
Schwartz, M.D., director of the ARHI Diabetes/Endocrine
Center and an OU-COM associate professor of endocrinology.
“A major portion
of the biorepository’s blood samples will be from a specific
group of Appalachian people. The biorepository will allow the
long-term storage of blood samples from individuals with
different endocrine diseases at various stages. These samples
will be available for Ohio University scientists and others to
study.”
“It is the only
biorepository that I know of that is dedicated to diabetes/
endocrine disease research in the state of Ohio,” says Dawn
Ford, Ph.D., biorepository coordinator. One other in Ohio is
dedicated to tissue sample research, says Ford.
Tuesday, Nov. 8,
as part of ARHI’s monthly Diabetes Research Seminar series,
Schwartz will give an update on the biorepository’s progress.
Schwartz’s presentation will take place at 11:30 a.m. in
Grosvenor West 111.
The biorepository
itself consists of two ultra-low temperature freezers with a
dedicated computer and bar-coding machines. After arrival, DNA,
RNA and plasma components will be separated from the blood
samples. These components are then divided into sub-samples. The
freezers are for long-term storage of the separated blood
samples; the computer maintains a specimen/
records database; and the bar-coding machines apply bar codes to
the stored blood sub-samples.
These blood
components will be refrigerated at -80° Celsius to keep them
from degrading and remain in storage until needed. When
researchers need samples, their requests must be approved before
they receive them, Ford says.
Patients of
University Medical Associates (UMA) may donate blood to help
build up the biorepository. Donors will be asked to give a
family disease history.
“I will pick up
the blood samples donated through UMA,” says Ford. “The medical
records of donors will be electronically transferred to the
repository’s database. I won’t know who the donors are, as all
personal identity information is encrypted.”
If necessary,
donors can be identified by UMA. Ford is the only person who can
request that a sample be identified.
By having a
plethora of samples on hand from different patient donors,
the biorepository will
save researchers time by making it easier to find suitable
subjects for their studies.
Researchers also will have a larger sample base from which to
choose. And in five or 10 years, researchers will be able to
look at diseases at various stages of development. Through
observing how a disease matures in the body, researchers will be
better equipped to fight them.
“One of the big
things is being able to link samples with clinical information,”
Ford says. “We will have information, such as the age of the
person or what they were presenting when they went to the
clinic. We also will look at patients over a period of time. We
will know how their blood chemistry changed.”
“There will be a
three-step approval process for researchers who want to access
samples from the biorepository,” says Ford. First, researchers
must go to biorepository advisory board to have their research
proposals reviewed and approved. Second, they must obtain
approval from the University’s Institutional Review Board. Last,
they also must attain approval from UMA.
“Right now we are
working on (blood) separation protocols,” says Ford. “Possibly
by Thanksgiving or early December we might be able to begin to
collect samples.”
Until then Ford
will continue working out protocols and quality control/quality
assurance measures. Ford began at the biorepository in July.
Eventually the
repository’s samples will head to Athens-based researchers or
researchers across the country to help study endocrine diseases.
Out of these collaborative efforts, it is hoped, new discoveries
will be made to combat these diseases.
“Diabetes and
endocrine diseases are genetically linked, and patients who have
these conditions want to know what causes them and what can be
done to protect other family members,” says Schwartz. “Although
there may not likely be immediate benefits to donors, they know
that they will be helping to further research into these
diseases.”
There are, says
Schwartz, animal models of many of these diseases, and it’s hoped
that the biorepository will facilitate the building of human
disease models that could be correlated with animal ones. This,
he says, “will facilitate collaboration between clinical and
basic science researchers at Ohio for a true ‘bench to bedside’”
scheme of medical care.
“If this is
successful, it will increase the University’s and OU-COM’s
research capabilities and broaden our capacity for accepting
more collaborative research proposals from other universities in
the United States and from around the globe.”
The facility soon
will have its own Web site, which will have information on its
advisory board, the application process to obtain samples for
research, a mission statement, a staff directory, links to
participating partners and a link to the International Society
of Biological and Environmental Repositories.
That Web site
will be linked to from
ARHI’s Web site, says Ford.
- 30 -
News for
the week of Oct
31 –
Nov 4
